Problem

Detox cannot interact with elements rendered inside React Native's <Modal> component on Android.

React Native's <Modal> creates a separate native Window (Dialog). Detox uses Espresso's onView(matcher).perform(action) without specifying a root matcher, so tap events are dispatched to the main Activity window and never reach the Modal's window.

This means:

• element(by.id('button-inside-modal')).tap() silently does nothing (no error, but no effect)
• waitFor(element(...)).toBeVisible() may find the element, but tap() fails to trigger onPress

Proposed Solution

Add Espresso's inRoot(isDialog()) support to Detox's Android view interaction layer.

In SingleViewActionPerformer.kt, the current code:

Espresso.onView(matcher).perform(action)

Could be extended to automatically detect and target dialog windows:

// Try default root first, fall back to dialog root
try {
    Espresso.onView(matcher).perform(action)
} catch (e: NoMatchingRootException) {
    Espresso.onView(matcher).inRoot(RootMatchers.isDialog()).perform(action)
}

Or expose an API for explicit root selection:

await element(by.id('modal-button')).inRoot('dialog').tap();

Alternatives Considered

1. Replace <Modal> with <View style={absoluteFill}> — Works but requires modifying production code to accommodate testing limitations.

2. UIAutomator (adb shell input tap) — input tap coordinates also fail to reach Modal windows on some devices.

3. System API (Epic [Epic] Extend system interaction support #4464) — The planned UIAutomator-based system.element() API would solve this for system dialogs, but React Native <Modal> is an app-level dialog, not a system dialog. It's unclear if the System API will cover this case.

Related Issues

• android popup not accessible #4695 — Request for RootMatchers support (closed as stale, no response from maintainers)
• [Epic] Extend system interaction support #4464 — [Epic] Extend system interaction support (Android side not yet implemented)
• Detox with modal and react-navigation #1742 — Detox with modal and react-navigation (closed as stale)

Environment

• Detox: 20.47+
• React Native: 0.81
• Android: API 31–34
• Device: Physical device and emulator

Reproduction

// App component
<Modal visible={true} transparent>
  <Pressable testID="modal-button" onPress={() => console.log('pressed')}>
    <Text>Tap me</Text>
  </Pressable>
</Modal>

// Test
it('should tap button inside modal', async () => {
  await element(by.id('modal-button')).tap(); // ← silently fails
});